Sex, drugs, rock’n’roll – it’s not what the BBC Four re-runs said it would be. The average guy or girl is more likely to find themselves eight miles from home in an Uber waiting for a quick shag after the prerequisite pub gak than they are likely to be mirroring the antics of Mötley Crüe. That’s just how it goes. These are the weekend warriors: doing up whatever happens to be going on that weekend in their local suburb before sleeping it all off in time to get into work at 9AM on Monday morning.
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London two-piece The Rhythm Method have been making tunes for these moments and these folk for the past few years, with happy go-lucky numbers such as “Party Politics” and “Local Girl” nicely slotting in among the catalogue of polyphonic house-warming tunes. And they’ve made some pretty big fans out of it too – from Mike Skinner and Matty from The 1975, to Denise Welch, who have all expressed a love for the lads’ peanut pop.Today they return with new single “Sex And The Suburbs” (premiering above). Fizzy and sweet, like a lurid alcopop, it’s a nostalgic ride back to being 17 years old and fumbling around on the back of a bus. It’s also the first track to be taken from their upcoming debut album How Would You Know I Was Lonely? (released June 21st) which features Mike Skinner, Chris Difford of Squeeze, and Zoee. So in light of that, here are members Rowan Martin and Joey Bradbury on Here’s The Deal With… Rhythm Method.Rowan: “We lived in a Live-In Guardian scheme. It was a recently vacated office block with basic amenities and we got away with not paying rent for the first seven months or so. We were right next to Tower Bridge, so it was a weird experience but one we’ll probably never have again. We were there for about nine months and then they turfed us without much ceremony. We were losing our minds at that point, so it was probably a good thing.”Joey: “We both met the same way we pretty much met everyone we know, going to gigs on the London scene. It was at our usual haunt, Nambucca. And I met Rowan’s brother in the previous weeks and had already made up my mind about him, what I remember most from back then is him wearing trousers tucked into boots.”Rowan: “I knew Joey had been a teenage poet, and we were both in bands at school. He was like the second frontman in his band, which is always an interesting role – sort of like a hype-man, party-starter, Keith Flint character. For a long time I wanted to be a solo singer but I could never really carry my songs on stage. People liked the songs, but I didn’t have what it took to pull it off – Joey definitely does.”Joey: “It’s cliche but it’s basically the story up until now. There are songs that are six years old on there, and then there are ones that are a year old. It’s a document of the story so far. For me… the stand-out track is the closer, it’s something I’d always wanted to write – a great British pop song in a way, in the vein of the Kinks and stuff like that. And you’ve got [Chris Difford] on it, which, even now, I can’t get my head around it – I don’t think it’ll feel real until it’s out. The fact we’ve got that co-sign is mission accomplished really.”Rowan: “It’s a really underrated thing. People put it down, the idea of music being fun. We try to make our live gigs as fun as possible, whether through comedy, what the music is doing, Joey’s performance, my performance. We want to give people a good time. Which doesn’t sound like a big achievement but it is.”You can find Ryan on Twitter.